The Trip to the Grocery Store

The grocery store was quite an adventure, of course anything with three kids is an adventure.  By and large we were able to stick to the generic name brands and Chef Justin’s prices.  

However, I did make a couple of executive decisions.  For instance with Oatmeal and OJ – I think you get what you pay for and I was willing to pay a little extra to get the name brands I know I like.  On the meats, I got 4 lbs of turkey because we are a family of 5 and was worried that based off of the menus the 3 lbs would not be enough.  The store didn’t have sirloin strips only full steaks which cost a bit more.  I saved money however on peanut butter because in our house we make our own and I already had peanuts to take care of that.  The biggest cost shocker came with the tomatoes – according to Chef Justin I should have been able to get 9 tomatoes for $3.00, but they didn’t have the packs Chef Justin recommended so 9 tomatoes would have been almost $11.00.  I put 3 of the tomatoes back, we paid $7.15, and will make do.

There are some items that are in recipes that weren’t on the grocery list – olive oil, vinegar, honey and general spice.  While it is true these are pantry staples and we have all of them in stock.  It should be noted that olive oil and honey can be quite expensive on the week you have to purchase them.

There were also some items that we bought outside of the list.  For instance, our children tend to have fresh fruits for their snacks so we bought strawberries and grapes for them as well as some household items.  We spent an additional $54 on these items.

Tomorrow our cooking adventure begins.  I am still concerned about the time it will take to prepare some of the meals, especially on a weeknight, but I am also really looking forward to expanding our pallet and enjoying some new menu items we wouldn’t have otherwise tried.